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In the story, “A Thousand Splendid Suns” Khaled Hosseini tells a depressing story that follows Mariam, an accident of a rich businessman and his servant’s affair. Mariam lives just outside Herat with her bitter mother, Nana in a divided family where she is visited by her father, Jalil Khan, once a week, telling her stories about living in Herat. Nana is despite Jalil banishing her for their affair, teaching Mariam how women need to be independent and not rely on men. Despite being viewed as an illegitimate child by Jalil and Nana’s warnings about him, Mariam looks up to him. She wants to spend as much time as possible with him so for her birthday she asks wants to go to Herat to watch a movie with Jalil. Jalil accepts the request but never arrives causing Mariam to go to Jalil’s house. However, Jalil never let her in, he was ashamed of her and was sent home only to be greeted by Nana’s lifeless body hanging off a tree due to Mariam, her only hope, defying her for Jalil. Following Nana’s funeral, Mariam remains with Jalil until she is forced to marry Rasheed, a middle-aged shoemaker, and move with him into Kabul. Now she must adapt and familiarize herself with her new life as the wife of Rasheed.
“Goddamn it, Mariam, don't do this to me' (Hosseini 46).
Characterization: When Mariam is announced to marry off to Rasheed, Mariam relies on Jalil to say something, to tell her it is not happening, Jalil says this line. This shows his true nature. He cares more for his ego and reputation as opposed to his daughter. He wants to send her off to protect his reputation.
“...I expect you to start behaving like a wife” (Hosseini 58).
Literary Lens: Men, right now in this society, wield all the power of women. Hosseini informs us about the gender norms for women, almost like tools for men to use. Rasheed says this after a week of being married to Mariam showing how women are expected to act. This foreshadows the life that Mariam will live throughout the story and creates the theme of gender roles.
Discussion Question: Is any amount of pain, trauma, grief, loss, etc ever worth the suicide?
Extension Activity - Vocabulary:
Penance - voluntary self-punishment inflicted as an outward expression of repentance for having done wrong. “His idea of penance, Nana said” (Hosseini 13).
Ratchet - causes something to rise (or fall) as a step in what is perceived as a steady and irreversible process. “It was the sun’s westward crawl that made Mariam’s anxiety ratcheted up” (Hosseini 57).
As the story progresses further, Mariam and Rasheed’s relationship is crumbling apart. They have been trying to have children but instead, have been greeted by multiple miscarriages forcing Mariam into an abusive relationship. Now the story introduces a new character going into part 2: Laila who is an aspiring schoolgirl who lives in a troubled family with her griefed mother, Mammy, due to her brothers heading off to war against the communist Soviets, and father, Babi however, Laila has Tariq, her best friend and crush to rely on. Laila continues to grow and experience life until the death of her brothers further worsening Mammy's depression and grief. However, when the war against the communists has finally been won, Mammy seems to be over her grief, becoming a new woman.
“Marriage can wait, education cannot...a society has no chance of success if its women are uneducated, Laila ” (Hosseini 103).
Characterization: This quote contrasts Babi drastically compared to previous characters. He realizes the magnitude that education has for Laila unlike how Mariam is informed by Nana how useless it is for her. Babi is an educated individual so he knows the true effect it wields. We can see how society would fare through Babi’s eye of knowledge.
“ As Tariq talked, Laila pictured her life as a rotted rope, snapping, unraveling, the fibers detaching, falling away” (Hosseini 162).
Literary Device: This is a powerful metaphor that represents the state Laila is in. It shows how Laila’s life is the rope, slowly detaching and tearing due to Tariq leaving Kabul. This stresses how significant Tariq is to Laila. It’s almost as if Laila would not be able to live without his presence.
Discussion Question: To what extent can grief have on a person? Is there a possibility it will last forever?
Extension Activity - Thoughts and Predictions: I predict that this state of peace won’t last for Mammy. Afghanistan, during this period, is trapped in the turmoil that is war. This reverses the hope left in the family causing the plot to develop by them needing to leave Afghanistan.
Now Kabul is in the middle of a civil war due to arguing on how the country should be governed after the communists left, creating a dangerous environment influencing Tariq to leave right before he and Laila confess their love and conceive a child. Then it heads into the third part of the story where Mariam’s and Laila’s lives intertwine after a bomb strikes Laila’s house killing Babi and Mammy and leaving Laila severely injured. Mariam and Rasheed then come to save and tend to her only so he can marry her to bear his child which Mariam can’t. Laila’s pregnancy, safety, and disclosure of Tariq’s death pin her into the marriage. The marriage makes Mariam jealous causing bad blood between Laila and her. Rasheed and Laila try to conceive a child, thinking the child is Rasheed’s, but Tariq’s. When the child, Aziza, comes out, revealed to be female, disappoints Rasheed. As time goes by, Rasheed’s patience for Laila and Aziza starts to thin out.
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